BELLEVUE, Wash. — An ongoing strike of concrete truckers and drivers is slowing down or stopping major projects in the Seattle region, including the light rail expansion, resulting in hundreds of layoffs.
“This is about as significant as it gets, it's affecting every project in the region that has any scope related to concrete,” said Bill Ketcham, general manager of Turner Construction Seattle.
The Teamsters Local 174 union representing concrete mixer drivers and cement plant employees has been in a standoff with concrete companies since late last year, and 330 workers are now striking, the union said in a statement.
Turner halted construction of a Meta (formerly Facebook) building in Bellevue’s Spring District on Friday because the company has been unable to get concrete for the site.
“We had 165 people on that job site prior to the strike, that number has come down, week by week, little by little, to the point today where it just didn't make any sense to keep the job going,” Ketcham said.
Sound Transit said the strike is slowing construction of the light rail extension to Lynnwood, the Eastside, downtown Redmond, and Federal Way.
The agency said it's missed deliveries of about 1,400 truckloads of concrete since December.
“As of (Thursday) our contractors have had to lay off more than 174 workers from our construction sites due to the lack of concrete and delays to associated work, with additional layoffs threatening an additional 120 workers at the end of this month,” said Peter Rogoff, Sound Transit CEO, during a board meeting, Thursday.
The Teamsters Local 174 said it's willing to talk through and work around key disagreements in the negotiations, but said the concrete companies are not budging.
"Even the lead negotiators on the Teamsters' side, who have decades of combined experience negotiating industry-leading contracts, were stunned by the Employers' utter disregard for the process of conflict resolution and contract negotiation," the Teamsters said in a statement.
Four concrete companies said in a statement that they've provided the Teamsters with the best package they have ever offered, which includes a nearly 18% pay increase over the next three years. The employers said they did not lock out their workers, who can end the strike tomorrow and continue bargaining while they resume construction.
“Once concrete starts flowing again, and we're hoping that is soon, it's going to take time for the other trades and the other work to catch up to where they've left off,” Ketcham said.
The two sides met with a federal mediator recently, but that did not resolve their differences. The union and companies have not said whether they plan to meet again anytime soon.